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New doctors from the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine graduate with an average of $256,000 in student loan debt. A new program aims to erase that debt and help fill a regional need for physicians.

For every one year the doctors work at Geisinger once they finish residency training, Geisinger will forgive one year of tuition, the school announced Thursday.

“We look at it not only as a way to address the workforce needs of this region, but to create opportunities for people in this region,” said Steven J. Scheinman, M.D., president and dean of the college and executive vice president at Geisinger.

The first class of the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program will include 10 first- or second-year medical students and will focus on students most likely to stay and practice medicine in the regions Geisinger serves. Recipients most likely will be students who grew up in Northeast or Central Pennsylvania or one of the other Geisinger service areas.

In the future, the scholar program will be open to incoming students and could grow beyond 10 students per class. Enrollment in the medical degree program is about 400.

Graduates of the first classes at the medical college have started to finish their residencies, with some doctors opting to return to Northeast Pennsylvania to practice. Geisinger officials said they hope to see those numbers grow and are working to encourage the doctors to return to the area. The program is the latest effort.

“More than anything else we’ve done, this creates a palpable, tangible incentive to return to the area,” Scheinman said.

Tuition and fees for medical students from Pennsylvania is now $56,485 a year. Total cost of attendance, including living expenses, can be more than $80,000 annually.

The demands of medical school prohibit most students from holding jobs, so students often take out loans for living expenses as well.

Many future doctors find that the need to repay debt dictates their career decisions, so the new scholars program is designed to remove the loans from career considerations. The program provides students with the financial freedom to choose to stay in the region and to select the medical specialty that most inspires them, according to the school.

The program aligns with the college’s mission of easing the physician shortage in the area, said Michelle Schmude, Ed.D.

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